Cyburbia's Best Small Towns: State by State - Nominations (South Central)

Many web sites and magazines do an annual "best of" feature, so why not Cyburbia? My thought is to come up with a list of our favorite small towns. One for each state. The only criteria is population, and I will arbitrarily define a small city as under 25,000. As for the rest, maybe you like it for its layout, its amenities, its downtown, or whatever.

This is a call for nominations. Since there are a lot of states I will break it up into regions. The next is south central: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. I will put all of the nominations together in a survey later.

Guthrie, OK, hands down, for the entire region. The first territorial capital of Oklahoma, the city probably has the best preserved collection of Wild West-type Victorian architecture east of the Rockies. Almost their entire original downtown architecture still stands, occupied, and in good condition, forming the largest urban historic district in the US - 2,169 buildings, 1,400 acres, 400 city blocks. There are also a few saloons that have been open since the late 19th/early 20th century. One of my favorites, Blue Belle Saloon, employed Tom Mix as a bartender sometime around 1906-1908, and has decor up featuring him and other bartenders from back in the day, in addition to preserved signs (still up) that prodded customers to "Please visit Madam X and her lovely ladies", with directional arrows pointing to a stairwell. The city's located about 45 minutes north of Oklahoma City off of I-35.

Runner-up: Brenham, TX. Home of Blue Bell Creameries. Located about halfway between Austin and Houston off of US-290.

I'm a big fan of Bastrop, TX. I think Dan posted a photo essay from there a few months ago. Great history, active & well-preserved downtown, feels like a mountain town almost, and very unique geography/landscape. The only thing it really seems to lack is some diversity and young/creative types. It has a pretty strong nature/heritage tourism sector as well.

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Guthrie, OK, hands down, for the entire region. The first territorial capital of Oklahoma, the city probably has the best preserved collection of Wild West-type Victorian architecture east of the Rockies. Almost their entire original downtown architecture still stands, occupied, and in good condition, forming the largest urban historic district in the US - 2,169 buildings, 1,400 acres, 400 city blocks. There are also a few saloons that have been open since the late 19th/early 20th century. One of my favorites, Blue Belle Saloon, employed Tom Mix as a bartender sometime around 1906-1908, and has decor up featuring him and other bartenders from back in the day, in addition to preserved signs (still up) that prodded customers to "Please visit Madam X and her lovely ladies", with directional arrows pointing to a stairwell. The city's located about 45 minutes north of Oklahoma City off of I-35.

Mrs. TexanOkie and I are going to Oklahoma this weekend for my father-in-law's 72nd birthday. We're going up to Guthrie Saturday for lunch, and I will photograph the city in a similar fashion to my Oklahoma City venture last year.

Many web sites and magazines do an annual "best of" feature, so why not Cyburbia? My thought is to come up with a list of our favorite small towns. One for each state. The only criteria is population, and I will arbitrarily define a small city as under 25,000. As for the rest, maybe you like it for its layout, its amenities, its downtown, or whatever.

This is a call for nominations. Since there are a lot of states I will break it up into regions. The next is south central: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. I will put all of the nominations together in a survey later.

My nominations:

Missouri- St. Genevieve

Louisiana - St. Francisville

Texas - Fredericksburg

Kansas - Great Bend

St. Gen is nice, but I will have to go with Hermann, little Germany on the Missouri

In Ill Galena probably wins, but Elsha is an odd little place that really feels like a village in the true sense of the word, Grafton is pretty nice too, Quincy has nice building stock but needs some love,

I agree with Howard on Hermann, Mo...very cool town. I will disagree with Queen B though on Branson. That place is home some of the worst development and land rape I have ever seen. But, I'll second the Eureka Springs, AR nomination.

Mrs. TexanOkie and I are going to Oklahoma this weekend for my father-in-law's 72nd birthday. We're going up to Guthrie Saturday for lunch, and I will photograph the city in a similar fashion to my Oklahoma City venture last year.

We went up to Guthrie on Saturday only to find the Blue Bell Saloon had been shut down (although, looking through the window, we could see the decor and whatnot was still all in there, as were most of the bottles of liquor at the bar - the local visitors center said the owner was forced to close it about a year ago, but that a local real estate company was actively trying to get it opened again). Instead we ate at a place called Stables.

We weren't able to take pictures. After walking about two blocks, the heat started to get to us, so we sought out air conditioning. It must've been over 100 degrees out. Pictures, unfortunately, will have to wait until a future visit once it gets a little cooler. We'll be going up for at least 1 OU football game this season, so perhaps that weekend.